by David P. Greisman
Manny Pacquiao, basking in admiration, savoring the moment, pulled himself up on the ropes. The slow-motion camera captured him, two raised fists, a bare-chested hero looking out, the clarity of the camera shot presenting a 147-pound man as the larger-than-life figure he’d become.
Behind him and below, Miguel Cotto peered through distorted features: swelling above his right eye, bruising below, a cut over his left eye. His mouth remained agape as someone dabbed at the blood, wiped off the sweat. Someone else grabbed his right arm, and his puffed lips pursed shut. “I’m fine,” he said, an insistence, an answer to a question normally reserved for his opponents.
Pacquiao, a mercenary unmatched, had disposed of yet another who stood against him. With that: his 50th win, his 10th current or former titlist vanquished, his seventh world title captured, his third “Fighter of the Year” award cemented.
Cotto had been saved by mercy, the referee stepping in 55 seconds into the 12th round, stopping the bout after the 336th punch to hit him, the 276th power punch landing solidly but being no worse, no more damaging than many that preceded it. The technical knockout as much saved him from further punishment as it did acknowledge that the fight, in reality, had long been over.
Cotto’s father had asked his son’s trainer to stop the bout before the 12th round even began. Cotto’s wife and son had left the arena after the ninth round ended.
Pacquiao, neck-and-neck with Cotto at the beginning, took the lead early and, as he has done again and again, used his speed to pull away.
Pacquiao has three types of speed: lightning-fast punches, darting footwork, and elusive head and body movement. Individually, they can pose a difficult challenge. In concert, they present a dangerous combination.
Pacquiao stood in front of Cotto in the beginning of the fight, a seemingly hittable target. Cotto, emboldened by what was before him, threw out jabs, sent out hooks to the body, and, with Pacquiao often standing still while punching, was able to block or dodge some of the incoming fire.
But Pacquiao has more than one gear.
In. Out. Up. Down. Jabs. Crosses. Hooks. Uppercuts. He is an electron, never in one place, rotating between positions and punches with atomic energy.
The first round seemed even enough. Both fighters landed 12 shots. Then Pacquiao unleashed himself in the second half of the second round. He threw 81 punches, twice what he’d thrown three minutes before. He landed half of those, with 33 of those 40 being power punches.
Years ago, Pacquiao would use his speed as a method of delivering one-punch power. Now, his speed was part of his power; the shots that aren’t seen are the ones that do the most damage.
Cotto got an example of that one round later: Less than a minute into the third, Pacquiao burst forward with a southpaw jab, a left hook to the body and a right hook to Cotto’s left temple, all within the span of a second. Cotto, caught, and caught by surprise, fell to his right, touching the canvas with both gloves to keep himself from going down.
Pacquiao’s most recent victories were a result of him being too fast for his opponents to hit, too fast for his opponents to keep from getting hit.
Cotto, the natural welterweight, was considered the bigger man, the harder puncher. But against such speed, Cotto deciding to use his own speed instead of his power, opting against loading up on the big shots and leaving himself more open to counters.
They traded flurries in the fourth, and then the momentum swung in a single sequence. Pacquiao, with a minute to go, had his back on the ropes, his gloves at his head, inviting Cotto to wail away at his body before following upstairs. Cotto obliged. Pacquiao clapped his gloves together and returned to the same position, asking for more.
He was Muhammad Ali to Cotto’s George Foreman, resting in a Rope-a-Dope. Cotto missed a left hook, Pacquiao ducking under and escaping to the center of the ring.
Soon he had Cotto backed to the ropes. Cotto attempted to retaliate, landing a left, missing a right hook to the body, then throwing another left. Pacquiao threw a right hook upstairs, and as Cotto came in with a right cross, Pacquiao laced through a left uppercut that turned Cotto’s head. Cotto toppled down. As with the first knockdown, he rose quickly, though this time he wasn’t just surprised, but stunned, too.
Pacquiao could hit him. Pacquiao could hurt him. Pacquiao would continue to do both.
It became target practice. Between the sixth and ninth rounds, Pacquiao hit Cotto with 140 of 317 punches, a 44 percent connect rate, with 121 of those landing punches being power shots. Cotto, in contrast, hit Pacquiao with just 57 of 187 punches, less than half what Pacquiao landed, a 30 percent connect rate. Only 26 of those landed punches were power shots.
After the seventh round, a Nevada State Athletic Commission member checked on Cotto in his corner. After the ninth round, Cotto’s wife took one of their sons from ringside, unable to watch any longer.
A Pacquiao punch cut Cotto above his left eye in the eighth. Not only would Cotto have to deal with blinding speed, but he’d have to do it half-blind.
By the 10th round, Cotto was doing what he could to survive, engaging with Pacquiao intermittently but mostly moving around the ring. With his opponent on his bicycle, Pacquiao took his foot off the gas. In that round, he threw only 57 punches, his lowest total since the early rounds, landing 20, half of what he’d landed in the ninth.
On more than one occasion in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds, Pacquiao would stand his ground in the middle of the ring, displeased with Cotto’s retreating. The audience booed as the 11th round drew to a close.
“There’s one left?” Cotto asked his trainer as he returned to his corner.
“Yes,” the trainer, Joe Santiago, responded. “Let’s go.”
Cotto, mentally and physically, was already gone.
In the 55 seconds that was the 12th round, Cotto threw just seven punches, six of them jabs. He landed nothing. Pacquiao threw 26 punches, landing 13, 11 of them power shots. The final left hand drove Cotto to the ropes.
He was not hurt by it, but he didn’t need to be hurt any more than he already was. Referee Kenny Bayless jumped in, his left arm curling around Cotto’s neck, embracing the wounded warrior, his right arm waving in the air, signaling his mercy.
After 34 minutes, Pacquiao had nearly doubled Cotto in landed punches, 336 to 172. He had nearly tripled Cotto in landed power shots, 276 to 93.
He had taken on his biggest test and made it look easy.
The 10 Count
1. What’s next for Manny Pacquiao?
That depends on which of these two truths is most important – (1) Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants Manny Pacquiao’s next fight to be in March in Dallas, Texas, in Cowboys Stadium; or (2) Manny Pacquiao’s next fight should come against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
If Arum is committed to the idea of Dallas in March, then that probably rules out Mayweather – four months seems too soon to get two huge egos to negotiate and come to terms and still have enough time left to market the fight. March would also be too soon for the winner of the Jan. 30 welterweight unification bout between champion Shane Mosley and beltholder Andre Berto.
Suggestion: Juan Manuel Marquez, except why would anyone on Team Pacquiao want to endanger a Money-May-sized payday? Even though Pacquiao has looked unstoppable of late, Marquez has, twice, been one point away from beating Pacquiao.
If Mayweather’s the goal, and if he remains a realistic goal, at that, we’ll either see both fighters take tune-ups, or we won’t see Pacquiao fight again until he’s in the ring with Mayweather.
2. What’s next for Miguel Cotto?
First, some time off to heal the physical wounds. Cotto, while clearly disappointed, didn’t seem mentally ruined by the loss; he realizes there’s no shame in losing how he lost to one of the greatest fighters ever.
If Cotto still wants to compete at welterweight (and I believe he can), here are some good potential bouts: Kermit Cintron in a battle of Puerto Rican pride; the winner of Mosley-Berto so that the top shelf of the 147-pound division doesn’t need to wait for Pacquiao-Mayweather to sort itself out; and, should he be reinstated, a rematch with Antonio Margarito, with Cotto looking for revenge and Margarito trying to rebuild his reputation.
3. I have little to say about the disappointing undercard to the Cotto-Pacquiao pay-per-view that hasn’t been said already, as plenty of other writers, in the days and weeks before the fight, gave Bob Arum heck for breaking his promise to provide a “spectacular” undercard.
Two things stood out last week before the card even began.
First, there was this interaction between Arum and MaxBoxing writer Steve Kim on Kim’s radio show, “The Main Event.”
Said Kim: “Bob, we talked about this before, I know we have a disagreement. The undercard that you put together, you promised a spectacular undercard. When it’s all said and done, do you believe you delivered on that promise?”
Arum’s response?
“Okay, good talking to you, Steve.”
Arum then hung up.
4. Second, there were these words from a few boxing writers with questionable appraisal skills:
“Bob Arum isn’t satisfied with just delivering a quality main event,” one writer put forth on a major boxing Web site. And, later: “[F]ight fans should be in for a pleasant surprise with the bouts leading up to the main event. Make your last minute beer runs before the card airs because you may miss something special.”
And on a blog for a major newspaper, in a post written by two authors (including an experienced boxing writer), was this headline: “An overwhelming undercard for Pacquiao-Cotto.” The first sentence of said entry: “The undercard for Saturday’s Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao bout in Las Vegas is a compelling one, featuring five unbeaten boxers and a WBA world welterweight title fight.”
Never mind that the WBA title fight, Daniel Santos against Yuri Foreman, was at 154 pounds, not 147. Errors happen.
But this was a bad undercard, so bad an undercard that our expectations were low enough that viewers wound up pleasantly surprised by any moments that were better than bad.
That said, it wasn’t De La Hoya-Pacquiao bad (three mismatches on the undercard, less than five rounds of action, 11 minutes and 41 seconds of house fighters barely breaking a sweat) or Calzaghe-Jones bad (40 rounds of undercard, three fights that went to decisions and meant the main event didn’t start until midnight or so).
5. Boxers Behaving Badly: Mike Tyson.
Need I say more?
For those of you who hid under a rock last week, the former heavyweight champion was in a confrontation last week with a photographer named Tony Echeverria at the Los Angeles airport, according to the Associated Press.
Echeverria says he got hit by Tyson. Tyson says he got hit by Echeverria. Here’s the Associated Press, paraphrasing Tyson’s spokeswoman, who argued self-defense: “Tyson’s spokeswoman […] said the boxer was traveling with his wife and 10-month-old child when he was attacked by an overly aggressive paparazzo. She said Echeverria repeatedly refused to comply with orders from airport personnel to leave the family alone and at one point collided with the baby’s stroller.”
No charges have been filed yet against either man. That decision will be up to prosecutors.
If that happens, and if Tyson is found guilty, he could also be charged with a probation violation. In 2007, he spent a day in jail in Arizona after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence.
6. Ricky Hatton did a decent job as guest “general manager” on last week’s episode of World W restling Entertainment’s “Monday Night R aw,” even getting in the ring with Chavo G uerrero, winning a boxer/wrestler match by one-punch knockout.
A few notes:
Early in the show, Hatton showed the Sheffield, England, audience a highlight from his last fight there – a ninth-round, one-punch knockout of Carlos Maussa. That was four years ago. Seems like forever…
Hatton was introduced for the Guerrero match as “slightly over 140 pounds.” Jerry Lawler, on commentary, had the line of the night: “Did he say slightly over 140 pounds? Fifty pounds over 140 pounds, or what?”
Hatton had to wear a sleeveless T-shirt to cover his gut. Clearly, things have changed. Now, there are only two Ricky Hattons.
7. At the Nov. 7 HBO card in Hartford, Conn., featuring Chad Dawson’s rematch with Glen Johnson, a representative of the International Boxing Organization handed those in press row a packet publicizing the fringe sanctioning body as “The Champion of Integrity.”
…
Right.
Others have gotten behind the IBO, but I just can’t do it yet. Yes, the IBO uses impartial computerized rankings, but I don’t feel as if those rankings are being used properly in determining contenders for its title belt.
Yes, there are top fighters holding IBO belts at heavyweight (Wladimir Klitschko), light heavyweight (Chad Dawson) and junior welterweight (Manny Pacquiao).
There are some second-tier fighters who aren’t egregious: super middleweight titlist Sakio Bika is ranked sixth; middleweight titlist Anthony Mundine, in a barren division, is ranked third.
But these are the exceptions.
The cruiserweight beltholder, Danny Green, was long a light heavyweight until he returned from retirement in April at 180 pounds, 20 pounds under the cruiserweight limit, more an over-the-limit light heavyweight than a cruiserweight. After beating some dude named Anthony van Niekerk, Green was ranked sixth at cruiserweight. Green won his belt in August by beating Julio Cesar Dominguez, who was ranked at No. 61. Dominguez, like Green, was closer to light heavyweight, tipping the scales at 181.5 pounds.
Lovemore N’dou, the welterweight beltholder, is ranked No. 26. Want to know whom he beat to get said trinket? Phillip N’dou, who at the time was ranked in the 57th slot one division below, at junior welterweight. On the undercard of that bout, Simpiwe Vetyeka, ranked No. 26 at the time, beat No. 45 Eric Barcelona to capture the bantamweight belt.
Mlungisi Dlamini, currently the No. 15 lightweight, got that division’s belt by beating Zolani Marali, now ranked No. 31. A month and a half before that, Ji Hoon Kim, now ranked No. 11 at junior lightweight, got that division’s belt by beating – I’m not kidding here – that same Zolani Marali.
Jackson Asiku, who like so many of these others picked up a vacant belt apparently desperately in need of an owner, went from No. 33 at junior lightweight to the holder of a featherweight trinket, all by beating No. 19 Heriberto Ruiz. And flyweight titlist Cesar Seda Jr., now ranked No. 18, got his belt by beating an Omar Soto currently ranked No. 42.
Yes, the “Big Four” sanctioning bodies have boxers ranked questionably – this past Saturday’s WBA title fight between 154-pounders Daniel Santos and Yuri Foreman is just one example – but for every mandatory challenger like Gary Lockett who never belonged, there are guys like Ali Funeka who prove they deserved their shot.
The four major sanctioning groups deserve plenty of criticism. But you can’t mimic their behavior by handing out belts like they’re Halloween candy and still claim to be “The Champion of Integrity.”
8. One more note from that Nov. 7 Hartford, Conn., card.
As bad as it was that nobody seemed to check on Harry Joe Yorgey after the second-round beating he took from Alfredo Angulo, and as bad as it was that referee Johnny Callas let Angulo get away with the fouls that exacerbated Yorgey’s condition in said second round, there’s this, per ESPN.com scribe Dan Rafael, about the bout’s third and final round:
“During the assault, Yorgey trainer Jack Loew tried to stop the fight, but a Connecticut inspector blocked him from going onto the ring apron to surrender,” Rafael wrote. “What a miserable performance from the officials appointed to protect fighters.”
My take: Having the knowledge that a fighter didn’t take unnecessary shots is far more important than having the opportunity to see a highlight-reel knockout.
9. The most laughable boxing news last week came in the form of a press release claiming the Nov. 6 pay-per-view featuring Zab Judah (against a journeyman named Ubaldo Hernandez) and Joel Casamayor (against some dude named Jason Davis) had a buy rate that “exceeded 100,000.”
Who wrote that press release? Jayson Blair?
Call me skeptical, but it’s safe to say a Friday night show featuring past-their-prime stars in non-competitive bouts – on a show coming only eight days before Cotto-Pacquiao, at that – only did a fraction of that number.
10. ESPN.com scribe Dan Rafael famously promised to shave his head if the Mayweather-Marquez pay-per-view did more than a million buys. He’ll be following through on his side of the bargain, presumably at some point in 2010.
I, being bald already, can’t make such a promise, but I’ll say this: If the Judah/Casamayor pay-per-view did 100,000 buys, I’ll shave Nikolai Valuev’s chest…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
